Jason Yeager
Member

Sam,

I have no experience building doors, but have been trying to learn as much as I can for this next project. I am about a year and a half into building my personal residence, so sounds like we are in similar circumstances.

I am planning to laminate my rails and stiles as you did, but am thinking of using alder, which is really popular out here in Colorado. I have a Jet 12" jointer/planer, and a small 1.5 hp grizzly shaper I picked up for next to nothing. I would like a powerfeed and a larger shaper, but may forgo that route to save some money and just use my table saw and build shaker style doors. Because I have so many to build, I also was thinking about using plywood panels and perhaps an applied moulding to dress is up a bit. I am also trying to sort out how to make the process as efficient as possible, but that is a bit hard when you are green and haven't done it. I guess I will just jump in and see what happens.

Thanks for your advice and time

Jason

I noticed you are a contractor. Are you building these doors for yourself or for someone else?

Mike had a 6" jointer and a router table for his door build. I have a shaper and a larger jointer with a 103" table. He told me that the 6" jointer was hard to deal with. He just purchased an 8" jointer. I think my larger jointer and shaper really made mine a lot easer.

Joe, the guy that helped Mike, also said to use two panels back to back, and not glue them together. His thinking was that if one cracks, you have another to keep out the weather. I laminated my panels. On my front door I may use two panels back to back, I have not decided.

How are you planing to build your doors? I can't think of anything else right now. Look at WW Zone and let me know what you think.

Sorry I had to send this in several messages, it was to long.

Sam

There is another member on this forum that just built a front door with two side lights. His name is Mike. You can see his door build on Woodworkerszone.com. Look under the mentors section. The guy helping him, Joe (who has build a lot of doors) recommended stave core rails and stiles. Mike did his with stave core. His turned out great as well. The stave core may be more stable, I don't know. The weather in So Ca is not bad, and the sun does not hit my door, so I like the laminations. Check out his door on woodworkers zone and let me know what you think.
Sam

There are several ways to build the rails and stiles. Some people use one piece of 8/4 lumber, some laminate the rails and stiles, and some use stave core lumber. When I was going to Cerritos the instructor laminated his doors, and recommended same. I like the lamination approach. I think the key is to use dry stable wood. My front door is three laminations, all three about equal thicknesses. My interior door is three laminations as well. I used 4/4 rough lumber, so two boards were not thick enough. I resawed a board and used around a 1/4" thick one to make the door 1 3/4" thick. I think the three laminations adds more stability. The 1/4" one is in the middle. Also I used riff sawn oak which I think riff and/or quarter sawn is more stable.

Hi Jason, thanks for the complements on the door. Wow, 22 doors, that will keep you busy. I have 10 more to do. I have the stiles and rails glued up for the front door. It will be 2 1/4" thick. My interior door is 1 3/4" thick.

This was my first door that I have ever built. It was actually not very hard. It seemed the parts I thought would be hard were not bad.

Years ago I went to Cerritos College, and one of the instructors had a steel I-beam to glue up rails and stiles. When I was ready for my beam, I went to a steel yard to see about one. The steel is very heavy, and as you say, not flat at all. So I made one out of baltic burch. It is strong, flat, and I can move it around with no trouble. When I am not using it, it leans against a wall out of the way.

I have to send this in three sections, to long

Hey Jason,
Are you the guide in these photos?
http://picasaweb.google.com/clewicki/2007GunnisonGorge

Chris